Public and Applied History in Germany: Just another Brick in the Wall of the Academic Ivory Tower?

In: The Public Historian, Band 40, Heft 4, S. 11-27

Abstract

German university history departments typically hire two types of historians.
Under the roof of history departments, historians research the past and produce
historical narratives (Geschichtswissenschaft), whereas professorships with an
appointment in history teaching (Geschichtsdidaktik) deal with the practice and the
theory of history. Both professors of history and professors of history education
teach and research in their related realms. However, with this division of labor
between historical research on the one hand, and the practice and theory of history
on the other hand, these two stakeholders of the discipline of history in Germany
are in friction. Public and applied history have emerged somewhere in between the
frontlines.
In this article, we argue that public and applied histories are indicators of change
in German historical sciences. We will describe the phenomenon, explain why
there are two terms for publicly engaged history in Germany, and describe the
change that is underway. This article is written in the spirit of a field report by two
participant observers. It describes coming to terms with a phenomenon for which
various actors in the field offer different paths. All people writing about public and
applied history are part of the phenomenon that they describe, including the two
authors of this text. Therefore, our observations are neither exhaustive nor fully
objective but rather, they are self-critical.